By allowing ads to appear on this site, you support the local businesses who, in turn, support great journalism.

Gender Won’t Impact Auto Insurance Rates

Those judged to be of lower economic status pay higher auto insurances rates, according to a Consumer Federation of America study.
- photo by Sarah Anderson

California Insurance Commissioner Dave
Jones has issued new regulations that prohibit the use of gender in private
passenger automobile insurance rating in California. The Gender
Non-Discrimination in Automobile Insurance Rating Regulation became effective
on Jan. 1, 2019.

“My priority as Insurance Commissioner
is to protect all California consumers, and these regulations ensure that auto
insurance rates are based on factors within a driver’s control, rather than
personal characteristics over which drivers have no control,” said Jones.

This is not the first regulatory action
Commissioner Jones has taken to prevent gender-based discrimination in
California’s insurance industry. In 2012, the Commissioner promulgated
regulations that prohibit and prevent the denial of coverage or denial of
claims for medical services based upon an insured or prospective insured’s
actual or perceived gender identity. Prior to his election as Insurance
Commissioner, then-Assemblymember Jones authored legislation (Assembly Bill
119, in 2009) to prohibit gender-based discrimination in the pricing of health
insurance. Thanks to that law, California eliminated gender-based pricing in
health insurance before that became the national standard under the Affordable
Care Act.

The Commissioner’s Gender
Non-Discrimination in Automobile Insurance Rating Regulation mandates that all
automobile insurance companies operating in California file a revised class
plan that eliminates the use of gender as a rating factor.